Spring 3 Certification Week by Week

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Table of contents for the Spring 3 certification series of posts:

  1. Jeanne’s core spring 3 certification experiences (Background information)
  2. About the test (includes Scope of the test and Spring 2.5 vs 3.0 exam)
  3. What did I read and how were the resources I tried
  4. My study plan
  5. Skills guru mock exam
  6. What I would recommend as a study plan

My study plan

Unlike the SCEA, I actually followed most of my plan. I spent about 10-15 hours a week on this. Here’s what happened: [note this is a list of what I did and not what is good to do; I definitely overstudied. See the “What I would recommend as a study plan” section for what I actually recommend you do. I’ve made the items with the least value for the test in pink and italics. I went on some tangents. Spring even gives the advice to explore and follow one’s curiosity. I certainly did that, but it was for general learning and didn’t help at all for the test.

  1. Week 1
    • Took the four day course
    • Started creating my Spring 3 certification study notes.
    • I made sure could answer all questions in the official Spring 3 study guide immediately after the course – at least on a high level. I didn’t know them all by heart, especially for the later sections, but at least they sounded familiar.
    • Decided to take the test a month after the class and create study plan.
    • Took BlackBeltFactory JDBC exam. Some of the questions are old and many went beyond the scope of the certification. I tried closed book and open book. It provided me with a nice guided tour of the JavaDocs.
  2. Week 2
  3. Week 3
    • Re-read the class student guide
    • Followed up about exam voucher which did not come automatically.
    • Received voucher after following up and registered for Pearson Vue account. It takes up to 24 hours to activate an account – about 12 hours in my case. Pearson Vue picks your user id which ensures I will never remember it. Thanks Pearson. <sarcasm>
    • Noted the voucher expires in January. This is just under 6 months. I was under the impression we had a year!
    • Registered for the exam.
    • Recreated the instructor’s example to remember full lifecycle with details (@PostConstruct vs init-method, and InitializingBean etc). This made it easier for me to remember.
    • Went through thru Spring 2.5 “sample questions” (not multiple choice and doesn’t cover all topics.) I can’t tell how did because some questions you can’t tell what they are getting at. The material wasn’t surprising for container, AOP, JDBC and Transactions. I noted some have nothing to do with Spring like what is ACID. They don’t cover all the topics. At first, I thought the questions were incredibly easy and useless for the exam. In hindsight, they were at a good level.
    • Took Skills-Guru Mock exam #2. Again, see the skills guru section. I got a 62% on my first attempt at this one. Again it worried me for no reason.
    • Started creating a BlackBeltFactory Spring 3 certification exam.
    • Completed the labs that we didn’t cover in class. This didn’t help for the exam, but I wanted to do it anyway.
    • Retook the BlackBeltFactory exams open books to pass.
    • Read the official Spring reference guide chapters 1-7 and 9-12. (8 is on the old way of doing AOP.) I was surprised at how little this helped for the exam given how vital it sounded for the Spring 2.5 exam.
    • Skimmed Gavin’s 2.5 study notes. These are the author’s guess as to what is on the exam. He was a grandfathered candidate and did not take the class. I’m not sure if the notes are so detailed/involved because he was grandfathered or because the 2.5 exam was significantly harder. Either way, don’t let the exam scare you any more than you let the Skills-Guru mocks do!
  4. Week 4
    • Added a lot of BlackBeltFactory questions to think through each topic. It’s a learning style that I like and helpful to others. I also added the Spring 3 category to a lot of relevant existing questions getting me to think about more edge cases. The BlackBeltFactory admits to being significantly harder than the real exam.
    • Read Spring reference guide chapters 13, 15, 19-22. (14 is on O/X, 16-18 more advanced web)
    • Read chapters 9-10 in Spring in Action (3rd edition.) All of this material was too advanced for the test. Note: chapters 11-14 are excluded from what I read because they aren’t published yet. I’m reading the chapters as they come out through MEAP (Manning Early Access Program.)
    • Retook both Skills-Guru exams because I was still thinking they were the level of difficulty of the exam.
  5. Week 4 and a half (I took the test on a Thursday so this would be Monday-Thursday)
    • I felt ready at this point – even given that I thought the exam was much harder. I was still reviewing so I didn’t lose momentum and forget the obscure things that don’t come up in real life. Plus I didn’t want to “just barely fail” because of something silly. It was maddening not having a sense for the level of detail for questions on the the test. Would it be so terrible for Spring Source to provide 5 sample multiple choice questions?
    • Took beta test a few times at BlackBeltFactory (a lot are questions I wrote, but it was a good review – like flash cards). Got between 88% and 100% on all attempts.
    • Re-read my study notes.
    • Review Spring’s 2.5 sample question list to make sure I know everything on it.
    • Took skills guru test one more time – this time took exam 2 first so end with exam 1 (and more confidence.) I got 92% on test 2 and 88% on second test. While this did track well to my real exam score, I had seen the skills guru questions multiple times at this point.
    • Skimmed class student guide one more time

Previous page: What did I read and how were the resources I tried

Next page: Skills guru mock exam

jeanne’s core spring 3 certification experiences

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Today I passed the Core Spring 3 certification exam with a score of 92%.  This blog entry is similar to Jeanne’s SCEA part 1 experiences – a place to share all the information about the process.  For SCEA, it was an place to weed through all the information out there and organize it a bit.  For Spring, it is the opposite.  There is an information shortage out there.  Not much is written up and most of what is out there goes with the 2.5 version of the exam.  As a result, this entry is much longer and has been split into a series of posts.

  1. Background information
  2. About the test (includes Scope of the test and Spring 2.5 vs 3.0 exam)
  3. What did I read and how were the resources I tried
  4. My study plan
  5. Skills guru mock exam
  6. What I would recommend as a study plan

Background information

I took the Core Spring class the week of July 20th.  It comes with one free attempt at the test.  Retakes are $150.  Luckily, I didn’t need a retake.  Based on what I had heard about the 2.5 test, it went deeper than the course and required a lot of studying.  As a result, I decided to wait a month from taking the course before taking the test.  Now that I know what the test is about, I know I could have taken it a week or two earlier.  Or even earlier if the voucher arrived sooner.

In late 2013, Jakub Staš added noted some changes in the exam.

Update May 2017: no longer need to take a class to take the exam

Next page: About the test

Note to those who are thinking of asking for a copy of the class materials:

The Core Spring course material is copyrighted by Spring Source. I cannot share it with others.  Please do not waste your time e-mailing me to request them.

Review: Marware Accent for iPhone 4

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Accent 4 After waiting two months for the Marware Accent Case for the iPhone 4, I was excited when it finally reach my doorstep. I prefer “flip” cases to shell cases for my smart phones since they protect the screen when placed in a pants pocket or a woman’s purse. On top of that, since they are often made out of leather, they provide a nice cushion should the phone be dropped from a few feet. Unfortunately, the Marware Accent 4 for the iPhone 4 suffers a serious defect with regard to the camera flash and was not worth the wait. Read on for the rest of the review.

The Good

Overall, the Accent 4 case design is quite nice. Unlike older iPhone 3 cases that most iPhone 4 owners have been using for the last 2 months, the Accent 4 fits the iPhone 4 perfectly. The mute button and power adapter are fully exposed. The speakers on the bottom are partially exposed with thin mesh netting over them. The volume buttons are cover by a thin sheet of leather with indentations for each button. Finally, the death grip area is completely covered so no need to purchase an iPhone 4 band aid.

The Bad

During the two month wait for the case, I called Marware support a few times, hoping to get a solid delivery date. It was scheduled to be sent out mid July but the Marware customer service representative informed me that there was a problem with the hole for the camera and flash being too small. They said it would be delayed another few weeks while they redesign it. I’m sorry to say, though, that they did not resolve the issue with the camera as the test below demonstrates:

I tried a number of different variations in light rooms, dark rooms, and pitch black rooms, but the results were all the same. As shown in the picture, some of the reflection was off the top of the hole so I tried readjusting the position of the iPhone inside the case but even without the direct bounce, there is always an awful glare/haze covering the picture. All of the pictures I took with the iPhone 4 inside the Accent case came out with a glare similar to the one seen above.

iPhone - Camera/Flash hole

Examining the back, the hole is large enough for the camera and flash to be seen without obstruction but not large enough for the flash to function properly. The flash functions by spreading light outward, and the width of the leather is too large so as to catch the light from the flash, and reflect it back into the lens.

Contacting Marware Support

Having ordered my case through Marware directly, I contacted Marware support about this defect. Despite the numerous revisions, Marware checked with the shipping manager and assured me that I did indeed have the finished product. Unfortunately, as the pictures above show, this product is still quite defective. I have to assume someone just said “close enough” and shipped the product as is. The support representative indicated Marware was not planning another revision at this time, although offered to refund my money. After waiting two months for a case, I’m reluctant to wait another two more.

Marware Support Followup

UPDATE: Marware’s official response on the Accent 4 flash defect:

Hello Scott,

As per our phone conversation today, the case you received is the most recent one. There are no plans for re adjusting the camera hole again at this point. The only suggestion provided to me is that when you use the flash, to push the iPhone up out of the case a little. If you are not comfortable doing that we can either exchange for another case or give you a refund.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,
Name omitted
Marware Customer Support Team

Despite acknowledging the issue, Marware does not seem to be interested in fixing it. At this time, I cannot recommend purchasing this case as it is clearly defective.